Head of User-Centred Design and Digital Experience

Head of User-Centred Design and Customer Experience – Grade 12 - £75,144 - £84,384 per annum

About Us

With its excellent transport links into central London, extensive town centre regeneration and the highest concentration of green space anywhere in London, Havering has a unique offer as a place to live, work and visit. By making the most of its position and opportunities, Havering is becoming a hub for start-ups and expanding businesses, as well as construction, logistics, engineering and manufacturing industries.

About the Job

The main duties and responsibilities of this role are:

• Providing strategic leadership in the design and delivery of user-centred digital services, ensuring they align with the council's strategic objectives and enhance the customer experience.
• Driving the adoption and integration of new technologies and digital solutions across the council, focusing on usability, reliability, and responsiveness to user needs.
• Fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within the digital experience and design teams, encouraging the exploration of new ideas and technologies.
• Developing and communicating a multi-dimensional solution architecture to deliver agreed business outcomes, ensuring consistency with agreed requirements and balancing functional, service quality, and systems management requirements.
• Championing user-centred design principles and practices across all digital projects, ensuring a seamless and intuitive user experience.
• Facilitating the adoption of new technologies, ensuring they are effectively integrated into the council's service delivery model and add value to the user experience.
• Leading responsibilities for the council's data and databases, ensuring compliance, availability, and performance.
• Contributing to policy making at the highest level with respect to strategic planning, technology procurement, staff development, and defining and embedding appropriate methods and standards.
• Identifying strategic opportunities to reduce costs, manage strategic cost pressures, and develop options for future change to improve value for money and manage cost pressures.
• Undertaking comprehensive contract and supplier evaluations to confirm the achievement of business objectives and value for money of contracts.
• Ensuring the application of information security policy, standards, and guidelines appropriate to business, technology, and legal requirements, and managing risks in accordance with the best professional and industry practice 
• Leading, motivating, and inspiring team members, facilitating dialogue regarding expectations, progress, performance, and development needs.

About You

Experience:

The ideal candidate will possess:

• A degree or equivalent work-related attainment or experience.
• Relevant certification based on skills requirements.
• Proven experience in leading user-centred design and digital experience initiatives within a large organisation.
• A track record of successfully implementing technology solutions that improve customer experience and service delivery.
• Experience in managing cross-functional teams and collaborating with stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong leadership skills and the ability to manage and mitigate organisational risk.
• Excellent communication skills, capable of articulating business objectives to both technical and non-technical audiences.

This role will be carried out via hybrid working, consisting of a combination of remote working and office based working. Face to face engagement and communication sessions will be necessary.   

Additional Information

We want everyone to choose Havering. When you apply for a job with us, your application is considered on its merits regardless of your age, disability, ethnicity, faith, gender identity or sexual orientation. Our residents and service users come from all walks of life, and so do our employees. Find out what it means to Choose Havering.

The London Borough of Havering has important responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. If you are appointed to a job that involves working with these groups, you may be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Please attach your supporting statement, explaining in no more than x2 A4 sides why and how you meet the criteria for this role.

We practice anonymised recruitment. Please ensure that you remove all personal information from any documents that you upload.